Finley Cai Aies Hall January 23rd, 20XX

I sat in an office again, this time on a couch, and tried to tune out Will’s dynamic voice as he argued on the phone. It was likely about something related to me, but as long as he didn’t offer any information, I wouldn’t ask.

While he argued with whoever it was, I focused on studying my mother’s business diaries and the documents Will had found about the company and her properties. It had been a lot of help in finding the people I could keep and the ones I could kick out of the company.

The journal showed which company’s I could trust and which I shouldn’t bother with. It was a bit outdated, and a lot of the companies listed either didn’t want to work with Volui anymore or had gone belly up a few years ago.

Will and Aleka, the executive secretary he’d found to help me, had brought the journal to me when Squire, an offshoot company of a larger enterprise, Kingdom, had reached out to us for cooperation. Considering the company was all but shut down and a lot of other companies had backed off after the ‘scandal’ of my existence, their olive branch for a partnership was a surprise, but a welcome one.

As hard as I tried to focus on the journals and my research on the other companies, bits and pieces of Will’s conversation floated into my ears and caught my attention.

“Of course, it’s her kid! I’ve already forwarded the paternity tests to you.”

My thoughts couldn’t help but drift to the fact that I couldn’t remember ever taking a paternity test, but I chose not to think about it; I got a distinct feeling that knowing wouldn’t make me all that happy. He went quiet for a moment before replying in a scary and distinctly Un-Will like way,

“Of course, we can take it up in front of a judge! Not just this case, we can also revisit the Adelaide case.”

This time the other side on the line went silent and Will slammed the phone into its receiver, ignoring the discomforting sound that action produced. He stared up at the ceiling for a bit, cracking his neck left and right in a cocky manner. He finally noticed he’d caught my attention and sent me a playful wink before he looked down at his watch and started a verbal count down.

“10...9...8...6...5 ...4….3...2….1”

He laughed rather obnoxiously and waited until the last ring before he picked up.

“Truman’s office”

The person on the other end of the line spoke so loudly and quickly that the sound of the buzzing on the phone reached my ears on the other side of the room. Will let out another obnoxious laugh at the end of the spiel and resumed speaking in a condescending and cocky tone,

“If that’s so like me, then why are you surprised?”

The person of the other side yelled one more line before violently hanging up, but rather than looking annoyed, Will replaced the phone onto its receiver, gently this time, and a huge satisfied smile danced on his face.

I gave up on trying to study and flipped over onto my stomach to face him, this time having my feet facing the door.

“Good news?”

He nodded and went back to his desk with a small skip in his step and twirled into his chair. He flourished his fingers and resumed his typing at a furious speed even as he responded to me.

“It’s nothing you have to be concerned about right now, so quit slacking and get back to studying.”

“I’d be able to study a lot better if I had some quiet.”

He laughed (good-naturedly this time) but still didn’t look up from his screen as he replied.

“I never said you should study here... in fact, didn’t I say you shouldn’t?”

I turned back around into a sitting position and pulled my textbook back up. Purposefully showing him the aggressively highlighted pages as proof of my hard work.

“But you registered me at a school close to here and it’s easier to commute from here than...where I live.”

I was currently in the office inside Will’s house because it was closer to the campus where I took business classes during my summer break and it was a lot more comfortable than my current living quarters.

“How are you holding up with the classes? “

I shrugged,

“Maybe because I was already doing this in school but it’s not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be”

“Fancy school or not, you’re still a high schooler doing a university student’s two years’ worth of work in three months. Pretty impressive kid.”

I frowned at the naturally parental tone he had taken on but didn’t pursue it. Besides, it wasn’t like it was bad to get complimented every once in a while.

“Just do your part, so it’s worth it.”

I settled back down to study when a thought suddenly occurred to me,

“Will I have to meet any of the staff at the company? Or the talents?”

Will finally looked up with a suggestive smirk and his eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

“Why? Have anyone in mind? Perhaps a female-”

I whipped a pillow at his head before he could finish his sentence.

“Nothing like that, I would just rather not have my face known to anyone while I’m still in school. It could lead to some unwanted attention. “

He switched to lawyer mode as he realized this was a serious concern to me,

“It’ll be difficult to completely erase you from the media because there will be a lot of interest in the youngest chairperson in the world, especially when it’s related to such a big company and you plan on being directly involved in the company’s affairs but if it’s just until you graduate, I’m sure there’s something we could do. I’ll bring it up to Aleka, She’s better at this sort of thing than I am.“

The door to the apartment loudly swung open and showed Will’s younger sister had come home. He looked towards me then the door of the study in a signal to open it; I obliged.

“Sparrow! is that you?”

The reply came instantly to show how familiar this routine was.

“Who else would it be?! Have you guys had lunch? I brought some stuff back from the meeting”

We both looked at the many abandoned delivery food cartons that littered the floor around us and Will put a finger to his lips.

“We haven’t had time to grab anything yet! Leave it in the fridge!”

I heard footsteps and then heard the heavy fridge door open and shut, then footsteps head back to the door.

“I’m going right back out, but I’ll be back like 1:00!”

“Make it midnight!”

The door opened and her reply barely came before it clicked shut.

“12:30 it is!”

We sat still for a minute to make sure she had left before Will got up and I followed suit. Now used to this routine.

“Let’s eat.”

Before we left the room, he suddenly tossed me a gem-studded box and a necklace. I caught them, albeit with some difficulty, and looked towards Will, who had taken on a sombre expression.

“Those probably belonged to your parents. The box was your father’s, and the pendant belonged to your mother. We couldn’t open either, but I figured you should have them as mementos.”

Bitter bile rose in my throat as I locked the pendant around my neck. I’d tried not to think about my parents too much, but dealing with all of their possessions made it difficult.

Suddenly going from thinking you were an abandoned child to finding out that your parents had left you a fortune large enough to fund a small city was a rather large perspective change to go through. I had heard little to nothing about my father apart from the fact that he was a foreigner and my mom took him everywhere with her.

“Thanks, Will. It must have been difficult to get these out of the storage...Thanks for everything.”

He shrugged and sped up towards the kitchen, forsaking the sappy moment of bonding for the food waiting for him.

“It wasn’t all that difficult, so don’t you worry your pretty little head about it…. If you’re that grateful, then when you get the company you should make me into the head of the legal department.”

I sped up as well and said in as serious of a tone as I could summon, wanting him to realize how earnest I was.

“It’s as good as done.”